Following three highly successful issues, biannual witchcraft magazine Sabat has released ‘Elements’, a larger-format publication that ‘invokes a conceptual pentagram’. It explores the elements earth, water, fire, air and spirit through a loose-leaf series of essays and illustrated, foldout posters.

Sabat is an exciting magazine that combines witchcraft, feminism, ancient archetypes and art to explore the darker sides of femininity. Previous issues have been consistently beautifully crafted, infusing high fashion references with atmospheric photography to produce witchy monochrome imagery, while taking advantage of mystical typography and clever printing techniques to add visual impact. Issue four departs from Sabat’s usual aesthetic, featuring bold and colourful illustrations, which stretch across the page and unfold into vast A1 posters.

Sonya Vatomsky opens the magazine with a piece exploring spirit, that looks at how beliefs can be transformed into truths, and how that can be a double-edged sword. The essay roots the magazine in our current climate of convoluted news stories and opinions that are passed off as widely acknowledged truths. Each piece that follows responds directly and thoughtfully to the elements, introducing us to the complex associations of each one. Page sizes jump between large and small, allowing colourful contrasts and clashes.

Sabat was initially inspired by the witchcraft movement #witchesofinstagram, which took off on social media. The result is a publication that builds on the mysticore trend, combining a contemporary and conceptual take on witchcraft.

The original idea was to complete the Triple Goddess concept, and to produce three issues centred around The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone. Now that the trilogy has been completed, it’ll be a relief for its many followers to find the magazine finding a way to continue in a slightly different, but no less well-executed, format.

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Looking forward to the whole thing; meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from Jill Abramson’s book ‘Merchants of Truth,’ alongside which this 2015 confrontation between NYTimes’ David Carr and Vice executives is worth another look.

While Vice and co continue staff cuts, back at the NYTimes, they’ve just reported digital revenue for 2018 of $709m.